1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to snap-action thermal switches and particularly to snap-action thermal switches wherein the cavity at one end of the housing for the switch has slots which communicate with a hollow portion at the other end of the housing for stationary contacts to extend through the slots.
2.
Numerous snap-action electro-switches responsive to changes in temperature of electro-switches have been devised and are presently commercially available. They have multi-part contact to terminal assemblies and are costly to manufacture, difficult to assemble, expensive, and very critical. They have a multi-part contact to terminal assembly resulting in an unduly large swtich relative to its function.
The housings in some type switches are usually made in several parts and require trained operators to assemble and fasten them together. The contact members and the terminal bars are separate and must be united together by rivets or staking. Such procedures add further to the cost of manufacture and assembling. Moreover, high precision dimensioning of the parts is necessary for such switches so that extremely close tolerances are required. Multi-part connections may result in higher resistance, especially in the case of high current applications. The particular construction may result in resistance arcing during such high current application.
Typical of the snap-action thermal switches which have one or more of the aforementioned problems are: Evans U.S. Pat. No. 2,238,881; Bolesky U.S. Pat. No. 2,717,936; Schmitt, U.S. Pat. No. 3,014,105; Colavecchio, U.S. Pat. No. 3,258,567; Mertler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,297,845; Ohlemacher, U.S. Pat. No. 3,470,517 and Manecke, U.S. Pat. No. 3,870,229.